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Sales Process: Sales Lessons You Can Learn from Being a Customer

As a sales professional, do you enjoy observing how other salespeople sell to you? My wife and I both do. During a recent vacation we had a chance to participate (for the third time) in an extremely well-honed and effective timeshare sales process. What's interesting is that many of the steps in this timeshare company's process can be applied to just about any type of sales situation.

Grabbing the Attention of Your Target Prospects

The first step in selling is to identify potential prospects and find a way to capture enough of their attention to get them to agree to participate in a discovery conversation. Do you agree?

For timeshare sales in Cancun, Mexico, getting the attention of prospects can be pretty easy. My wife and I first became aware of the timeshare company because they had a booth in the Cancun airport. What better place to connect with prospects if you are selling luxury vacation experiences?

Of course, getting the attention of prospects can still be a challenge. After all, most of the people walking through the Cancun airport have already made reservations somewhere. They are probably eager to get to their destinations and start having fun. So why would they stop, listen to a brief sales pitch, and agree to make the time to listen to a longer sales pitch at some point during their vacation?

This timeshare company is successful because they offer a really attractive assortment of complimentary products and services, some of which are difficult for competitors to offer. For example, how do you offer people free rounds of golf on quality golf courses if you don't own (or have a relationship with) a golf course? The same applies to free spa services. And, when you throw in a number of less valuable "freebies" (such as free excursions, T-shirts, and free transportation to and from the property where the presentation will take place), you can build a pretty attractive package.

Questions: How do you grab the attention of your target prospects? Can your company offer any "freebies" that are desirable enough to convince prospects to give you some of their time? Or, would it be more effective to alert them to (quantified) results your company has produced for other companies?

Breaking the Ice/Qualifying the Opportunity

Let's assume you agree to attend the timeshare presentation. When you arrive at the property where the presentation will take place, which approach do you think would be more effective?

1. You are herded into a big room for a 90-minute sales pitch. The "hard close" is on from the moment you enter the room.

2. You are greeted warmly by a concierge who introduces you to an individual salesperson. The salesperson is engaging, pleasant, and low-key. They take you on a relaxed tour of the property, then to one of the restaurants for a meal. During these activities they ask you questions such as, "How often do you like to vacation?" And "What do you like to do on vacation?"

If you are like most people, approach #2 is more appealing. It also accomplishes several important goals, including:

* Putting the prospect at ease

* Building rapport

* Collecting information that can be leveraged during the sales process

Questions: When a prospect agrees to schedule a discovery conversation with you, what do you do during the discovery conversation? How do you build rapport with the prospect? How do you determine whether they are a good fit for your company's products and services? How do you determine the key factors that will drive their buying decision?

Presenting Your Solution

The next step in the process is to sit at a table with the salesperson and go through a presentation that includes two important components: beautiful pictures of the various properties that would be included in your membership (to help you visualize what your vacations would be like, which engages your emotions), and a financial discussion that is carefully crafted to make it easy for you to cost justify your purchase. Some of the timeshare company's cost justification components include:

* Free, one-week, all-inclusive vacations

* Discounted vacations

* Free airline tickets

* Free spa services

* Free rounds of golf

* Free transportation to and from the airport

Questions: How do you engage your prospect's emotions (which is a critical step in any buying decision)? How do you get them to feel the pain of their business problems and/or visualize the joy of having their "pains" go away? How do you build a compelling financial case to support the buying decision you want your prospect to make?

Closing the Sale

If the other steps in the sales process have been done well, closing the sale tends to be simple and straightforward. Of course, it makes sense to be prepared to answer common objections. In fact, you may want to proactively raise key objections if you know they are likely to arise later in the sales process. And, it never hurts to reserve a few extra enticements to help prospects who are "on the fence" tip over to making a decision in your favor.

Questions: Do you find closing sales to be difficult or easy? If you find it to be difficult, chances are excellent you are not doing a thorough enough job of sales opportunity qualification.

Pursuing Repeat Business

Each time you vacation at one of the timeshare company's properties you are offered the opportunity to attend an "update" meeting. Yes, the update meeting includes another sales pitch, but the timeshare company offers so many attractive "goodies" that most people don't seem to mind. Plus, the upgrades that are available can be quite attractive. Examples include additional guaranteed weeks of reservation availability, larger rooms and suites, access to more exclusive properties, etc.

Questions: What is your strategy for selling more to existing customers? How do you expose them to your company's entire portfolio of products and services? How often do you remind them of all of your company's capabilities? (An unfortunate fact of life is that customers DO forget the great things you can do for them!)

Delivering What you Promise

Of course, your ability to sell more to existing customers will be enhanced if your company does a great job of delivering what it promises to deliver. In the case of the timeshare company, my wife and I have used our membership for two, one-week vacations during the past year. We have been delighted to enjoy:

* Luxurious accommodations that include a two-person Jacuzzi in every room

* Ocean views

* Free golf and spa services with every visit

* Free excursions

* Multiple properties (members can travel freely between properties and enjoy each property's amenities)

* Excellent food and beverages

* Liquor dispensers in rooms

* Room refrigerator stocked with water, soda, and beer

* Free bottles of (pretty decent) wine

* Excellent service from happy employees

Conclusion

You can learn important lessons from being on the receiving end of other salespeople's sales efforts. Analyze what the salesperson is doing. What are they doing that is effective? What are they doing that is ineffective? If a salesperson is doing something that is effective, is there a way for you to integrate it into your own sales process?

If you pay close attention whenever other salespeople attempt to sell to you, it can be a great learning opportunity. Take advantage of it!

©2007 - Alan Rigg

About the Author

Sales performance expert Alan Rigg is the author of How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Sales Team Performance: A Step-By-Step Guide to Building and Managing Top-Performing Sales Teams, and the companion book, How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Selling: A Step-By-Step Guide to Achieving Top Sales Performance. His 80/20 Selling System™ helps business owners, executives, and managers end the frustration of 80/20 sales team performance, where 20% of salespeople produce 80% of sales. For more information and more FREE sales and sales management tips, visit http://www.8020salesperformance.com.

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